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And not the lost city of Paititi. According to National Geographic Peruvian archaeologists have examined the site. Findings include:

Natural chemical and physical processes, including seismic activity, created the stone blocks found at the site, causing them to “appear to be walls or surfaces made by hand,” the report states.
The team found “no evidence of archaeological structures or buildings … that could suggest a human presence,” it adds.

*snip*

“The stones do not show signs of wear or of intervention from the hands of men from the act of cutting stone,” it states.
Scientists also found no mortar on the corners or sides of the stone blocks.
“Additionally no evidence exists that in any moment the sector in question could have been used as a stone-working site for the preparation of stone elements,” it says.

Basically, then, the forces of nature mimicked the complexity found in, designed, urban centers. Am I shocked? Nope. Humans tend to mistake angular formations for cities, forts, and such all the time. Something in the way visual perception is wired in the human brain causes humans to mistake stuff like this:
For stuff like this:
You’d have to talk to a neuroanatomist or gestalt psychologist to find out why though.

Like this:

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19 Responses

Not surprising at all. This is just like the alleged sunken Japanese pyramid off the coast of Yonaguni Jima. Sandstone tends to break along bedding planes, that is, layers that form as sediments settle and become compressed into rock, and these resulting planes can be straight and parallel, making the structure look artificial to the untrained eye. Such fractures are especially common in areas with faults and tectonic activity, and Peru has a major fault system, the Incapuquio fault system. Adding to the drama is the fact that the local mayor owns a tourism business, so it was financially beneficial for him to declare this site was the ancient (and perhaps mythical) city of Paititi. Sorry, Mr. Mayor, your “lost city” is just a natural sandstone feature in a region full of sedimentary rocks.

Not surprising at all. This is just like the alleged sunken Japanese pyramid off the coast of Yonaguni Jima. Sandstone tends to break along bedding planes, that is, layers that form as sediments settle and become compressed into rock, and these resulting planes can be straight and parallel, making the structure look artificial to the untrained eye. Such fractures are especially common in areas with faults and tectonic activity, and Peru has a major fault system, the Incapuquio fault system. Adding to the drama is the fact that the local mayor owns a tourism business, so it was financially beneficial for him to declare this site was the ancient (and perhaps mythical) city of Paititi. Sorry, Mr. Mayor, your “lost city” is just a natural sandstone feature in a region full of sedimentary rocks.

That would’ve fooled me. I think it’s an obvious, and sensible, first assumption. And it points out why we need to check our assumptions with investigation, like science does, rather than just build elaborate edifices on out assumptions, like psuedoscience, fringe science (or religion) does.

I beck ur pardon misters, but I might officialy announce to this website your mistakes.:)
How the heck do u think that those limestones and angular blocks have not been made from men… neither would’ve been made by extraterrestrial existence!
Those constructions idealize the great past of human culture’s architecture as for incas and any other civilization.
Some of u who response that these were “natural formations” honestly need Gestalt tests.
Good Afternoon

I beck ur pardon misters, but I might officialy announce to this website your mistakes.:)
How the heck do u think that those limestones and angular blocks have not been made from men… neither would’ve been made by extraterrestrial existence!
Those constructions idealize the great past of human culture’s architecture as for incas and any other civilization.
Some of u who response that these were “natural formations” honestly need Gestalt tests.
Good Afternoon

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"You may not be willing to admit that you resemble an ape; if your thousandth ancestor is more like an ape than you are, you may, if you wish, call it a coincidence. But if that thousandth ancestor's forebears become progressively more simian as you trace back the geneological lines, you will have to admit that somewhere in your family tree there squats an ape." Earnest Hooten

Charles Darwin

"But I had gradually come, by this time, to see that the Old Testament from its manifestly false history of the world, with the Tower of Babel, the rainbow at sign, etc., etc., and from its attributing to God the feelings of a revengeful tyrant, was no more to be trusted than the sacred books of the Hindoos, or the beliefs of any barbarian." Charles Darwin: The Autobiography